Evgency (Eugene) PODKLETNOV (Updated 3/22/09)

     Podkletnov is discussed in a new ($130) textbook entitled Frontiers of Propulsion Science. This 737-page book was published in February, 2009 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts, Inc (AIAA).  From hereon I shall refer to it simply as the textbook. It purports to be the first (and as of February, 2009, the only) textbook in the field of Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP).  Podkletnov is mentioned in the index on pages xxiv, 9-10, 14-15, 237-239, and 242.  On page xxiv, on Figure 1, which sums up the contents of the text, his concept is listed as having had null results or shown to be not viable.  On page 10 it is stated that NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, began its own study in an attempt to recreate Podkletnov configuration. The study ran from 1995 to 2002, but was “unable to complete the needed test hardware with the resources available.  Private funding supposedly did allow for a completed apparatus and published the results in 2003.  “Using equipment 50 times more sensitive than available to Podkletnov, the group found no evidence of a gravity-like force.”  Podkletnov then made the assertion that a force beam could be created by applying high-voltage discharges near superconductors.  However, the claim is unsubstantiated according to Paul A. Gilster of the Tau Zero Foundation, who wrote Chapter 1 of the textbook.  Gilster does credit Podkletvov with bringing a combination of both energy and skepticism to the subject (of antigravity).  Chapter 5, written by George D. Hathaway of Hathaway Consulting Services, Toronto, Canada, has a more detailed analysis that will be discussed further below.

     Before proceeding, let me state up front that my search for some real answers is made with the foreknowledge that the textbook is published by the AIAA which was founded by Dr. Harold Puthoff.  He has connections with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), CIA, and DIA; as well as to my friend, Dr. C. B. Scott Jones; and to Col. John B. Alexander, who also have had careers associated with U.S. Intelligence and UFOs.  Scott thinks Puthoff will one day win a Nobel Prize for his work on an antigravity. Further, according to Nick Cook, much of Puthoff’s work is being done in Russia.  So, in studying the math and engineering behind all this, we must look out for competing interests, both personal and national, as well as for disinformation.  Indeed, while Nick Cook is not mentioned in the textbook’s index, on page 19 of Chapter 1 it is stated that, “Reports in Jane’s Defense Weekly that aerospace giant Boeing was investigating superconductivity effects related to Podkletnov’s work remain unconfirmed” (Cook, N., “”Anti-Gravity Propulsion Comes ‘Out of the Closet,’” Jane’s Defense Weekly, 29 July 2002), and, I might add, unrefuted.  Gilster goes on to state that, "the private nature of such potential work makes the prospects for disclosure unknown. 

     Chapter 5 of the textbook is entitled Gravitational Experiments with Superconductors: History and Lessons.  A cursory read of it makes clear the extreme difficulty in measuring slight changes to the gravitation field when dealing with low temperatures and rapidly spinning superconductors.  Podkletnov used liquid helium while some analyses by others were done with liquid nitrogen.  Liquid helium is much colder than liquid nitrogen.   He worked with yttrium barium copper oxide ceramics (usually refered to as YBCO, but the formula is actually YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x) that were spinning at 5,000 revolutions for minute (rpm), with the first paper of interest entitled A Possibility of Gravitational Force Shielding by Bulk YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x.